Re: apt sources.list

[Mike Renfro <renfro@tntech.edu>]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 09:36:02AM -0700, Jeff Coppock wrote:

>    Can I get a few recommendations on the proper sources.list for a
>    system running woody, that includes the security updates?

Woody would be my last choice for a automagically secure installation:

* it gets no packages of any kind that haven't been in unstable for >2
  weeks with no release-critical bugs. Security fixes are not an exception
  to this rule.

* most of the packages in security.debian.org have nearly identical
  versions to potato -- Debian tends not to upgrade versions to fix
  bugs, but instead backports patches into the current potato versions.
  This means that apt-get upgrade (or dist-upgrade) will tend to
  ignore security packages, since you'll already have a newer version
  installed. apt-get upgrade doesn't check dates, changelogs, or
  anything but the literal numeric version number.

Running stable+security.debian.org is really the only *easy* solution,
followed by running testing+(selected packages from unstable with
security updates and probably other changes, too), and lastly by
running fully unstable. Ok, those last two don't qualify as easy to me
at all.

For me, it's not even a question -- you want security, you run stable
and keep security.debian.org in your sources.list.

-- 
Mike Renfro  / R&D Engineer, Center for Manufacturing Research,
931 372-3601 / Tennessee Technological University -- renfro@tntech.edu